Shoreacres Mayor to new council – take this job and shove it

Heh, she didn’t say it quite that way but at the end of last night’s Shoreacres City Council Meeting, in front of another standing room only crowd, Mayor Dolly Arons resigned from office. As I noted here, voters in Shoreacres overwhelmingly chose to go a new direction by ousting two incumbents and selecting three new council members. Here is her statement of resignation:

Mayor Dolly Arons

The results of the election indicated to me that the people of Shoreacres want to head in a different direction and you have a new council with new goals. And I understand that my presence here is interpreted to be a hindrance to the achievement of those goals. So I am hereby resigning the position of Mayor. Matt will never talk to me again, I know that, but I will be here for you. I do believe that Matt can help reunite the city and take us in the direction that the residents have indicated that they want to go. I ask that you put aside all your personal agendas and personal vendettas and reunite the city. Thank you very much.

I thought that the Mayor’s remarks were gracious and that she made the correct decision to resign. Small town politics can be very rough and tumble, dividing neighbor against neighbor, and I do think that a complete reset of the governance of the city can help restore the unity that somehow left us in the past couple of years. As with the outgoing council members, the Mayor has much to be proud of during her three years in that office, including the bulk of rebuilding after Hurricane Ike. I wish all politicians were as civic minded as Mayor Arons, in this case giving up her post after determining that it would be the best thing for the city. Well done, Mayor.

The “Matt” that she mentioned in her remarks is Matt Webber, who was elected Mayor-Pro-Tem shortly before she resigned. I do think that he has the ability to step in and unite the city in the interim before a new mayor is chosen. Texas Local Government Code 22 allows for the council to appoint a mayor or to schedule a special election. It will be interesting to see which route they chose. On the one hand, appointing a mayor can be done quickly and without cost. But a special election would allow the citizens to choose their mayor directly and that is always a good thing.

One item of interest that was brought up during the citizen comment period has to do with the financial condition of the city. Former Alderman Gerry Victor claimed that the city has spent roughly 32% of the city’s reserve fund (rainy day fund) over the past year and a half. I haven’t been able to confirm that and have reached out to Mr. Victor for clarification and hope to have something on that in the future. If true, this must be corrected immediately. We spent less than that amount out of the fund in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Ike and there will be other emergencies in the future.

Here is a photo of the outgoing council members after receiving awards for their service to the city: